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Residents urge voting, veterans support and nuisance enforcement during Hickory council public comment
Summary
At the Oct. 21 Hickory City Council meeting, speakers urged voter participation, better veterans services and city enforcement or nuisance remedies for a persistent drug house near a local car wash.
Three members of the public spoke during the early public-comment period at the Oct. 21 Hickory City Council meeting, pressing the council on civic engagement, veterans services and neighborhood nuisance enforcement.
Matt Senn, a Hickory resident who described his upbringing in North Carolina public schools, urged voter registration and participation. "Please don't take it for granted," Senn said, adding that citizens’ votes are the primary way to hold government accountable.
Senn also urged attention to veterans’ needs including health care, affordable housing and job training and criticized unfunded state mandates he said can strain local government budgets.
Local business owner Dave Fontana, who gave his address and said he operates a car wash on Fifth Avenue Northwest, asked the council and police to address what he described as a long‑running drug house on Seventeenth Street. "There is a drug house on Seventeenth Street," Fontana said, and he reported repeated vandalism and slow police response at times. He requested follow-up from Captain Demas of the Hickory Police Department; Captain Demas agreed to speak with him after the meeting to gather specifics.
The council did not take formal action during public comment, but staff and law-enforcement representatives offered to follow up with the speakers after the meeting.
